Facing Death

This weekend a friend of mine lost his mother to a long-term battle with renal failure.  I know it's hard for him, but it was also an emotional roller-coaster for him to see her like this and mentally draining to help her out when she was so sick.  He did all of it gladly because of his love for her, but I also know that it wore him down.  Her death was still hard on him, though he knows that she is no longer hurting and has gone to be with his father and with Christ.

Death is an interesting thing for us to face.  As a Christian I know that my Christian friends and family will be in a much better place when they die, a place I should be jealous of.  Yet I still have some anxiety about dying, though I know where I will go.  I think that's a natural human fear of the unknown and of things we've never experienced.  Yet for Christians we should almost be eager for death!  Yes, I know that sounds very strange.  But all of the stresses, hardship, pain, and suffering we face on this world will be gone and forgotten once we're in Heaven.  We'll be with God, and will have nothing but joy. Why wouldn't we want that?  Yet we still put off death as long as possible.

Besides our natural worry of such things, God made us to be on this Earth.  We all have a purpose here, and we shouldn't try to cheat His will. Yes, I'm eager to not have to worry about my job, bills, pain, sickness, and heartache.  But I also have a mission here, and gifts that God has given me.  I don't pretend to be able to fully understand what He wants of me or what He has planned.  But I know that I have a purpose here, and in honor to God I will do my best to fulfill that duty.

When a loved one dies, it tears us up. We miss him or her, and cry because of our own loss.  But we should be happy for that person (if they're Christian....non-Christians are another story), and even throw celebrations like some cultures do. They have gone to a better place and are waiting for us to join them.

Spontaneous Joy

Anyone who has been in church for very long knows what it's like to have an altar call or blessing service.  People are broken and hurting and they turn their hearts to God.  As they pour out their emotions, there is often crying and weeping as feelings overwhelm them.  We had one of those services today and as usual there was a lot of people crying.

But then one person started laughing.  It was as spontaneous and heartfelt as any of the weeping.  Then she asked in amazement "Why are we all crying?"  You know, she has a point.

The word "joy" appears in the NIV Bible 242 times.

When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes.
1 Samuel 18:6


Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Nehemiah 8:12


The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
Psalm 19:8


I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
John 15:11


And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13:52

Everything about God should fill us with happiness.  When we were lost, He found us.  When we are hurting, He heals us.  When we deserved Hell, He saved us.  When Jesus died, He gave us His greatest gift.  Christianity should be about laughter and joy, not weeping and sadness.  We should feel elated, not burdened.  Our hearts should burst with glad feelings, not sad ones.

So I sincerely hope that at some point in your day and your week, you can erupt with spontaneous laughter.  And when you're praying in church next time, surprise people with giggles and glee.  Then remind them of Nehemiah 8:10....Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

Angels Among Us

The Bible is full of stories of angels acting as messengers of God as well as helping people here on Earth.  The idea of guardian angels is popular throughout modern culture, and many people believe in them.  There is indeed Biblical basis for this belief (see a brief discussion of Matthew 18:10 here).  And we're seeing personal proof of this in our own church.

My church is in a small city in northwestern Georgia.  Last Fall we built a new building and ever since then we have felt that we are in a spiritual battle. Things have not gone smoothly and people within our congregation have come under one challenge after another.  We haven't grown as quickly as we had expected and hoped, despite filling a niche not really seen in our community.  It has really seemed like Satan has been having an active hand against us, trying to prevent us from reaching more people.

But in the last few weeks we have been getting encouragement and truly believe that God is letting us see into the spiritual world a bit.  There have been some strange occurences in our church....stereos will come on and off.  People will see things out of the corner of their eyes.  And more than one person has heard the sounds of wings flapping even when they are alone in the building.  These things have been noticed by children and adults, and only recently have people been sharing stories with each other.  At first it was rather spooky, but the more that happens the more we are really convinced that angels are around us and God is protecting us for something great.

If you're discouraged or feel like everything's going against you, stop for a minute. Look and listen for subtle signs.  God loves us all so much that he has angels out there to fight the battles we aren't even aware of.  One is out there to protect you.  Pray, and your sight may be opened.

They Don't Get It

Working for God can be hard sometimes, especially when your ministry is not exactly "traditional".    My wife and I are heavily involved in "geek" ministry through Fans For Christ.  We go to sci-fi/fantasy cons, speak to people who come up to our fan table, and when possible have panels involving Christianity and hold church services.  Because we enjoy the settings and the people, it is a lot of fun for us.  Frankly, we feel blessed that God can use us in this manner.  And we really feel that this is a needed ministry, as most Christians stay away from these events.  Where will the con goers find followers of Christ who actually understand them and won't condemn their hobbies?

However, we've run into problems with more traditional people in our church.  Thankfully we have a pretty open church that is modern and accepting.  But we've discovered that it seems like people accept our ministry but don't really embrace it.  We've had comments made that if we weren't so involved in all of the other things in our life we might have more time for our home church.  It also seems that some may believe that we go to cons more for the entertainment than to be a light for Christ.  Frankly, they don't really get it.  They don't understand why we do what we do.

I guess that I shouldn't be really surprised.  The people in Jesus' time, especially the religious leaders, didn't understand Him either.  Jesus spent time with beggars, lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, and other dregs of society.  He was actually condemned for His interest in them and His caring.  The Messiah actually wanted to be around these people!  But people in the church told Him that He shouldn't be doing that.  But Jesus persisted because He saw where the need really was.  He was willing to be quite strange and even rejected by religious leaders in His pursuit of sharing God's message.

When I go to cons I often bring up the "where would Jesus be?" situation.  If Jesus was back on Earth today, would He be more likely to be preaching every Sunday in a church, or would He be more likely to be going to these cons?  I think the latter would be pretty obvious to most honest people.  So that's where I will be.  No, I'm not giving up my "normal" church on Sundays, but I'm also not going to limit myself to it.

So people in my church don't completely understand.  I guess I'm okay with that, because Jesus understands and God wants my family to spread the Gospel at cons.

God's Mysterious Blessings

It's been a year since I started this blog, right after ConNooga 2009.  We just got back from this year's ConNooga, and it was incredible! 

My wife won the title of Ms. ConNooga and now is the spokesperson for the con for the next year.  This is something she has been wanting since last year, and wants to use it to spread the message of the fan group we belong to, Fans For Christ.

I made contacts with a Christian sci-fi/fantasy author and a Christian role-playing game designer.  I've been toying around with making a fantasy RPG setting, and the editor/designer actually encouraged me to become an official licensee with their company.

We had a great church service, met many new people, and strengthened existing friendships.  And through it all, God was glorified!

My wife and I truly felt like we were God's favored children this weekend! We both had amazing experiences, and moved closer to our dreams.  And it was all because we were there with God as our focus. 

That's a great lesson for us all to keep in mind.  God wants us to be happy!  He wants our dreams fulfilled.  Now, he's not going to do that if we're out there trying to make it on our own or defying Him.  But when we work for Him...when we do His will...when we put Christ first in our lives and in what we do...then the blessings of God start to wash over us, and amazing things happen.

Trials Of All Kinds

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7

Trials are very hard to deal with as we go through them.  Unexpected things happen and delay an expected blessing.  Everything seems to fall apart at once.  And through it all we wonder where God is...wonder if He has forgotten us. Trials really test our patience!  

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  James 1:2-3

So isn't it a bit strange that the Bible tells us that we should be thankful for trials? That we should be joyful? Does that even make sense?

Actually, it does.  When things are going right and everything falls into place perfectly, where is there room for God to perform miracles? Trials and troubles teach us to rely on God, not on ourselves.  Trials teach us to trust in our faith.   Trials put us through fire to burn away the things within us that give us the most problems.  Sure, it's not easy. But through all of life's trials, we need to remember that this is what God wants...not to harm us, but to put us in a place where He can really and truly work wonders in us.

Beyond Our Expectations

Faith is a funny thing.  When things are going well, it's easy to say "Sure, I trust God.  After all, look how great things are."  When we have a downturn, the most strong Christians will say "Yes, things are bad, but I'm putting my faith in God to make it all better."  When the bad times go on for a long time, it's harder to have that faith.  Bills pile up, health continues to worsen, a job just can't be found....you know the situations.  The longer we go without a sign from God, the shakier our faith becomes.  We start to wonder if He is even listening and if He even cares.

My wife has recently been there (yes, honey, I'm picking on you a little bit).  We have had some financial issues, and have gotten behind on some bills.  Some promotions and other things in my job that we were really counting on have been delayed by many months.  Even with some bonuses, we needed around $1500 to get caught back up.  And that's not easy to simply come by.  With each month of falling further behind, she struggled more and more with God and her faith.  She cried and worried, wondering where the blessings were.  We have been faithful in our tithes and giving, despite our own troubles, so where were God's blessings?  Why was He being so quiet?  I managed to hold onto my faith, but as I told her last week, it was because I didn't have anything else.

Sometimes we find ourselves at the end of that rope.  We've slipped down and are dangling by the final knot over a chasm whose depth we can't see.  And at that moment God says "let go of the rope."  What?  You're kidding, right God?  Just let go?  "Yes," He says.  Now, coming from God, we should be listening to that.  And when we can see the ground a few feet below us or we have hundreds of feet of rope it's not hard to do.  But at that moment even God's words and His promises are hard to believe. But as hard as it may be, who really knows best right then?

So I started doing our taxes today.  When we were getting our W2s we noticed that federal taxes weren't taken out of my wife's paycheck.  It wasn't much, but it worried us.  She just wanted us to break even and not have to pay any taxes.  As I started doing them, I noticed a trend upwards.  Since I knew that she had been praying for a $1500 blessing, I predicted that our refund would be somewhere between $1500-1600, and was pretty happy with that thought.  But God knows better, and showed me a lesson.

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
      "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
      "In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 
(Malachi 3:8-11)

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
(Luke 6:38)

There are numerous scriptures on giving and blessings.  We humans are very impatient, and have a hard time waiting for these blessings.  Yet when has God ever failed us?  It may take a long time by our standards, but He always comes through.

So back to our situation.  Our final refund was $2800 from Federal and $600 from State...a total of $3400, when we would have been overjoyed with $1500!  Praise to God!!!!  We can meet our obligations and actually put some into savings.  Our faithfulness has been rewarded, so far beyond our expectations.  God lived up to His end of the deal....but doesn't He always?